“No problem, Mr. Bastion,” Ms. Gladstone said. She didn’t mention anything about the sudden change in the previous order for drinks War had given her prior to takeoff.
“Thank you,” Tess said from behind them.
Kade gave them a questioning look as they all found a place to sit on the two fold-out couches.
Tess had a coffee in her hand, custom made the way she wanted, literally a minute after she had taken a seat. They picked out food, the twins starving and Tess’s belly growling, but she chose smaller with oatmeal.
“Only oatmeal?” Kade asked.
Tess shrugged, giving Bastion a quick glance.
Bastion raised his own coffee cup. It had been a concession for him to allow Tess to have coffee before eating when his protective instincts were aroused. If she shortchanged him now, after he had given her what she wanted first, Keir was sure she would have to pay a price.
Keir wasn’t going to warn her this time.
“It’s Scottish oats,” Ms. Gladstone said. “I’ve prepared it proper. We’ll get something thick and nourishing to stick to your ribs. No more getting sick, you wee thing. There’s nought enough to your bones for you to eat like a bird.”
Bastion sat back further in his seat, seeming satisfied.
“Do you want something sweet on top or salt and butter?” War asked. He didn’t seem to be picking up on the silent byplay.
“I would like to try the salt and butter. I’ve not had anything but packed, insta-oats with the dehydrated apples and cinnamon. Not really my favourite.”
Ms. Gladstone made a horrified gasp. “I’ve got a fresh apple and a bit of cheese you can eat on the side.”
Tess smiled. “That sounds perfect,” she said.
“How is your coffee?” Keir politely inquired.
He was making a little small talk as they all settled down to enjoy the food and drink. He hoped that Bastion was over his earlier snit. At least, Bastion had gotten out the biggest part of his revelations of his past to Tess.
The rest of them didn’t have much time left to hold onto their secrets.
“My coffee is just right,” Tess replied, taking a long, grateful gulp.
It wasn’t all that ladylike, but the pleasure on her face as she momentarily closed her eyes and swallowed a mouthful of her preferred beverage was sweeter than anything he had seen one of the society-trained girls at one of Bastion’s boring balls do with their fanciful curtsies.
The rest of the guys played along, talking about nothing of importance. They wanted to wait until Ms. Gladstone finished and went back to the front of the plane with the pilots to give them more privacy for deeper discussions.
War had told them that the flight attendant could be discreet as she had been with his family for more than a decade. It was the rest of them that were uncomfortable.
War didn't really have any secrets that Ms. Gladstone would be unaware of already with her employment.
Keir and his brother probably had the darkest secrets of all, especially with the steps they had taken after their mother's death. There were things they had done that could send them to jail.
Bastion wasn't afraid to dirty his hands, either.
Finally, everyone was served.
“Wait until Tess is done eating,” Bastion insisted once Ms. Gladstone had left them alone once more.
Despite her claim of a queasy belly, Tess had done pretty well at packing away the oatmeal. She’d nibbled on the apples and took a few bites of the cheese.
Kier doubted that Ms. Gladstone had meant for Tess to finish everything on her plate. The bowl of oatmeal alone would’ve been more than enough for her from what Keir had watched her eat in the mornings at school.
“She did good,” Kade said.
Sometimes it was like his brother was in his head. Better Kade said something instead of Keir. Bastion would only accept so many challenges to his lead in one day.
“I am full,” Tess agreed.
She pushed her empty bowl a little bit away. Picking up the coffee cup, she finished the last swallow.
Everyone held their breath as they waited to see how Bastion would react. His sigh was echoed by the rest of them.
“As long as you’re comfortably full. Bring your plate over here and we’ll see if you want to nibble a bit more while we talk,” Bastion said, leaning back on the couch.
Keir and Kade were already sitting on the same couch with him, so there wasn’t really room for Tess.
Keir got up. He’d had his time with Tess already.
Bastion probably was feeling left out. His stepmom made him miss out on her rescue. Bastion wouldn’t say anything to Tess about it though, acting like it wasn’t his second choice to sneak out and visit the psych hospital, so Tess’s mom would be informed about their plans to leave on this trip.
It had been important, but chasing after Tess had been the job all of them wanted.
War, at least, got to arrange the trip. Spoiling their girl as they coaxed her back and took her away from her frightening reality for a weekend was as much a treat for War as for Tess.
Bastion should be allowed to feed her. It was small but intimate, and a way to show his caring directly like the rest of them had been able.
“She’s going to sit on my lap,” Bastion said, stopping Keir from his rise off the couch.
“Uh, what?” Tess squeaked out.
She’d already risen from the couch beside War and had been looking at the crowded seat Bastion wanted her to take.
Bastion cleared his throat, taking a moment. “I missed you. Please come sit on my lap? I’m your boyfriend, too. You want me to tell you all the things I keep locked inside? I need you close enough to whisper them.”
Kade swore softly. Keir sat down, shocked.
If Bastion was going to open himself up to Tess like that, then the rest of them better be ready to put in an equal effort.
“Can she take turns?” Keir asked. “Sit on each of our laps to hear our confessions?”
“I like that idea,” Kade said.
War laughed. “As long as Tess doesn’t mind sitting on my lap knowing I’m going regimental under this kilt.”
“He’s commando,” Tess clarified, looking at Kade and Keir instead of War.
Keir smirked. “Is that what Bastion meant about you handling the big guy?”
“Didn’t she ask for more?” Kade asked. He burst out with his own laugh, unable to stop himself.
War straightened up with an insulted look on his face. “She wanted me to swive her more than once, not a one-night stand,” he said, accent strong. “Tess is too polite to let you weiners know you can’t compare.”
“I’m going to sit on Bastion’s lap first,” Tess said, ignoring the rest of them.
She was going cherry-red.
“Boy, does she got it wrong if she thinks Bastion’s lap is the safest to sit on,” Kade mumbled.
Keir heard him. Tess didn’t.
“Shut the fuck up. No scaring her. It’s my turn,” Bastion said, quiet but firm.
Tess hopefully didn’t hear that either.
She was brave, as they all knew, so even if she had overhead them, she still came over and stood in front of Bastion. That tie he gave her hung loosely between them as she bent over a little and handed Bastion her plate.
He was lounging like a lazy cat, taking up more than his third of their seating. His lower back was against the arm of the couch and his legs sprawled out at an angle. One socked foot met the back of the couch with the knee bent. The other leg was hanging off the couch. The space between his legs was obviously intended for Tess.
Bastion accepted the plate and held onto it, resting his arm on the knee he had bent and propped up on the couch. He grabbed Tess by the tie with his other hand and slowly drew her in for a kiss.
She put her hands on his shoulders to keep her balance and some space between them.
“It wasn’t a lap dance that Tess agreed to, Bastard,” Keir said when the kiss l
ingered.
It was rather sweet and soft, but Keir was impatient to get this talk over with as soon as possible. Now that they finally had to confess, Keir couldn’t wait to get his soul clean.
“Kade, we need more room on this couch,” Bastion said, breaking off the kiss. Tess was standing there, motionless, staring down at Bastion’s lips.
Kade pushed Keir right off the couch, singing out, ‘roll over, roll over’ in a playful voice.
That was traitorous twin behaviour. All over a girl, which Keir could understand, and even feel a bit better about seeing happen. Kade’s happiness almost overruled the twin laws.
Yet, Bastion was the one giving the orders.
“Guess Tess found the biggest dick,” Keir said, making sure that his voice was loud enough for all of them to hear in the cabin.
Tess pulled the tie out of Bastion's grasp. She straightened herself up and turned around to face Keir.
“His dick is the only one that I haven't had my hands on to compare. Are you suggesting that all of you drop your pants—or raise your kilt—and let me do a side-by-side comparison?”
Bastion chuckled. “Kitten, have you been hiding these sharp claws all along?”
He didn't take her threat to have them strip too seriously, yanking her down with one hand on her hip to land on his lap. Her bottom ended up in the space between his thighs and her legs went over his leg closest to the edge of the couch.
The outrage seemed to deflate out of her as she landed. Tess let herself lean back into Bastion’s chest, seeming to take comfort from him.
Bastion’s abrasive attitude was reserved for Keir as he pouted at his loss.
“Just remember who kissed your ass first, Pumpkin. I can promise big dicks aren’t good everywhere,” Keir snidely added.
“Enough dicking around,” War said.
He waited for a moment. Tess let out a little snorted laugh, then he continued.
“Bastion, you go first since you’re holding Tess on your lap.”
The mood sobered up real fast.
“Once upon a time…” Bastion began.
It should have gotten another chuckle from Tess but none of them felt like laughing now. Keir’s best friend was going to share something that had scarred him, admit he was fallible. Younger.
Oh, they were all still young.
But part of Bastion had died already.
7
Tess
No Secrets Hidden from the Heavens
Bastion was stiff as a board underneath her.
It wasn't because he was aroused, quite the opposite. They might have been joking around about dicks to lessen some of the tension, but as soon as the topic came back around to the serious business that sent them here, Bastion practically turned into stone.
Tess felt his discomfort.
Bastion seemed to be having as much difficulty as her with how to handle their reunion. He had his hands all over her, but there was a new distance between them. She knew that he didn't want the distance, but it wasn't fair to expect him to be the one that had to keep closing that distance either.
Bastion had already sent the twins with their video to bring her back home. The next move was hers.
“I don't want to hear the fairytale that you tell everyone else,” Tess said, interrupting Bastion right off the bat. “I already know about the burn, and you told me enough about your mother for me to understand the kind of background you overcame to get to where you are today. I don't need you to unbury the rest of it for me right now. When you're ready. When it's important. If it's something coming between us. That's when I want to hear more.”
“What do you want to hear now?” Bastion asked.
He picked one of the pieces of apples off of the plate he had balanced on his bent knee and offered the slice to her. It gave her a moment to think about what she wanted to answer.
“What is relevant right now is hearing about what happened to Kade’s and Keir's mother. I need to understand your role in what happened, especially in regard to Jensen and my father,” Tess said.
Saying that out loud was an admission she wouldn't have given to anyone else.
Her father was a criminal, a dirty cop. Families of dirty cops had the same enemies as their criminal family members. All that two-timing and backstabbing made a lot of enemies.
Sometimes the families were the ones that paid the greater price. Easier to reach, to hurt.
Who wanted to be known as the daughter of someone that betrayed the very principles he stood for in uniform?
Bastion grunted a response, still holding the bite of apple she hadn’t eaten yet. She took the last bite and then he started talking.
“I found the drugs. Pretty sure, at least. I don't know exactly what kind of drugs. Everything was bundled up in bricks and masking tape, like in a bad crime show. With all sorts of deadly white powder on the streets, I decided not to take any chances by examining it.”
Tess swallowed her bite of apple, feeling it go down thickly. The guys might think she knew more about illegal drugs than she really did because of her father.
“Good call on not touching it more than necessary. What did you do with it?”
“He buried the evidence,” Kade said. “I was too sick, laid up in hospital after the accident for a few days. Bastion came to see me. I wasn't really awake. He figured out what needed to be done and did it, no questions.”
“You talk when it's your turn,” Bastion said, putting an end to Kade’s explanation. “There were cops and reporters all over the hospital. I hired a private investigator right away. There was speculation in the papers from day one. We didn't have any time to waste. The twins’ father was grieving. He didn't even come to the hospital after the first day. It was one of the few times in my life that I had no idea what I should do.”
Tess tried to imagine what it would have been like for him. All of them must have been so confused and alone.
Keir would have been lost without his brother. Bastion’s persistence trying to get the story out of either of the twins would have come off as too strong.
When they brushed him aside, what choice did Bastion actually have but to take matters into his own hands?
“What made you decide to look for drugs?” Tess asked Bastion, all sorts of scenarios running through her mind.
The guys were providing more information. It told her where the game-pieces were placed on the chessboard. Her brain couldn’t stop trying to figure out now which way those pieces would move.
“My investigator told me that the car involved in the crash belonged to the twins’ father. He never let anyone else drive the Jag.”
Keir cleared his throat loudly. “It’s your story, Bastard. But we’re going to tell ours too—so just let me say my mother didn't know how to drive stick. Dad, Kade, and I are the only ones that could have driven her.”
Tess didn't quite get what Keir was saying. She already knew that Kade had been driving that night.
“I don't drive manual either,” she admitted. “Where was Kade taking your mom in your dad’s Jag?”
“You guys are jumping ahead in the story to your part,” Bastion said.
“Does it have to be told in order?” Tess asked.
“I’m almost done,” Bastion said. “How about you go sit with Kade after you finish off another piece of cheese. I can tell you the rest without holding you. Thanks for being a good listener.”
She hadn't really done much, sitting there. Bastion needed the opportunity to open up, even if he hadn’t said a lot. It had been a start. Knowing that she was eager to listen must have been enough. Getting it out had been hard, but it was also a relief. He felt more relaxed underneath her.
Once Bastion had fed her the last piece of cheese, Kade reached for one of her arms. He held on above the wrist and pulled her forward. Bastion kept a hand on her back to help her keep balance as she shifted over to sit on Kade’s lap.
“You guys really don't want to let go of me?” Tess teased. �
�Are you going to be this handsy at school? We’re going to get sent to the principal's office a lot more.”
Bastion gave her butt a little tap. “No, we're not going to act any different at school. Would kind of give away what we're planning on this trip. You’re going to need protection outside of school. Inside, we all share enough of your classes. We don't have to touch but you should stay within an arm's length.”
“So we're coming up with a plan? You’re going to include me, right?” Tess asked, settling herself on top of Kade’s lap.
“Yeah, you’re included,” Keir answered, coming over from the couch he been sitting on with War after being pushed off earlier. “Bastard, spit out the rest of what you want to say. It’s candy time.”
Bastion legit rolled his eyes at Keir. Tess almost laughed out loud, but the thought of the serious subject they were going to get back to kept her humour muffled.
With a sigh, Bastion continued. “I was just going to tell Tess that the drugs are all on me. I was the one that hired the private eye, and then, instead of going to the cops, I hit up some old contacts in my mother's neighbourhood to get me into the junkyard where the Jag had been taken after the police were done with their investigation. I broke in and I stole the drugs. I buried the evidence, knowing I was hiding something that the police would have confiscated if provided the opportunity.”
“He did it because the drugs were found in our dad’s Jag,” Keir said.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Bastion admitted.
“Bastard knew he could end up being the one getting into trouble if the drugs were found. We wouldn't have let him do it if he had asked us. That was a crazy risk,” Kade said. “Way beyond best-friend shit.”
“Whatever,” Bastion said. “You all know I’m not the whitewashed prince that my father wants to believe he raised. Gangs, drugs, and violence are more in my kingdom.”
“The drugs are one of the reasons we can't go to the police,” War said. He had been quiet for the most part while the other guys talked. “The other reason is closely related to drugs. Which car the drugs were found in, actually.”
Duplicity (Victory Lap Book 2) Page 11
